But of course the miracle on display here is the fourth movement of Ludwig van Beethoven‘s Ninth Symphony in D minor, commonly known as the Ode to Joy. He based it on a poem by Friedrich Schiller and created the world’s first choral symphony by featuring the human voice on the same level as the symphonic instruments. The miracle is that this, one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, was brought to completion when Beethoven was completely deaf from tinnitus.

When I hear the 9th I always think of how, at its 1824 premiere, Beethoven made his first on-stage appearance in 12 years to a packed hall in Vienna. Michael Umlauf and Beethoven jointly conducted the work, obliged to do so since Beethoven couldn’t hear a blessed thing. When the work ended, Beethoven was several measures off and still gesticulating. Contralto Caroline Unger walked over and turned Ludwig around so that he could see the audience’s cheers and applause. He received five standing ovations. Ludwig van Beethoven truly had Götterfunken, the poem’s “spark of the Gods”, in his humbled, handicapped, human form.